气候变化领域集成服务门户(CCPortal): The Palaeo-Agulhas Plain: Temporal and spatial variation in an extraordinary extinct ecosystem of the Pleistocene of the Cape Floristic Region

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DOI	10.1016/j.quascirev.2019.106161
	The Palaeo-Agulhas Plain: Temporal and spatial variation in an extraordinary extinct ecosystem of the Pleistocene of the Cape Floristic Region
	Marean C.W.; Cowling R.M.; Franklin J.
发表日期	2020
ISSN	0277-3791
卷号	235
英文摘要	At the height of its extent, during strong glacials, the Palaeo-Agulhas Plain (PAP, south coast of South Africa) was the size of Ireland, sometimes doubling the size of the extant Cape Floristic Region (CFR). During strong interglacial climates, the PAP was mostly submerged and its ecosystems destroyed or restricted to small slivers. Scientists have largely ignored the PAP, presumably because it is submerged. We argue the PAP contributed to the diversification of the mega-diverse CFR biota and was the most productive foraging habitat available to the early modern humans that inhabited the famous archaeological sites along the current coast. We synthesize the palaeo-archival evidence and modeling results from this special issue, and other results, and propose a general model for the Last Glacial Maximum PAP, and offer suggestions as to conditions during marine isotope stages (MIS) 6 and 4. Unlike the region today, the PAP included abundant nutritious grassland, savanna-like floodplains, numerous wetlands, and a soft and highly dynamic coastline. Grasslands dominated the northern plains and fynbos shrublands the southern plains, both cut by broad meandering rivers with extensive floodplain woodlands and grasslands. The high productivity of the northern sector PAP supported a diverse plains fauna and rich habitats for humans living along its northern fringe, and during MIS 4 they had access to large ungulates on the grasslands, coastal resources, and plant foods from the plain and interior. The Holocene and historical contact period provide our current model of human and ecological conditions in the CFR region, but should be interpreted as a low-resource outlier. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd
英文关键词	Cape Floral Region; Palaeo-Agulhas plain; Paleoenvironments; Pleistocene; South Africa
语种	英语
scopus关键词	Floods; Rivers; Cape Floral Region; Palaeo-Agulhas plain; Paleoenvironments; Pleistocene; South Africa; Ecosystems; Cape Floristic Region; divergence; floodplain; fynbos; Holocene; Last Glacial Maximum; spatial variation; spatiotemporal analysis; Agulhas Plain; Ireland; South Africa; Western Cape; Ungulata
来源期刊	Quaternary Science Reviews
文献类型	期刊论文
条目标识符	http://gcip.llas.ac.cn/handle/2XKMVOVA/151504
作者单位	African Centre for Coastal Palaeoscience, Botany Department, Nelson Mandela University, PO Box 77000, Port Elizabeth, 6031, South Africa; Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, University of California – Riverside, 900 University Ave, Riverside, CA 92521, United States; Institute of Human Origins, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, PO Box 872402, Tempe, AZ 85287-2402, United States
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Marean C.W.,Cowling R.M.,Franklin J.. The Palaeo-Agulhas Plain: Temporal and spatial variation in an extraordinary extinct ecosystem of the Pleistocene of the Cape Floristic Region[J],2020,235.
APA	Marean C.W.,Cowling R.M.,&Franklin J..(2020).The Palaeo-Agulhas Plain: Temporal and spatial variation in an extraordinary extinct ecosystem of the Pleistocene of the Cape Floristic Region.Quaternary Science Reviews,235.
MLA	Marean C.W.,et al."The Palaeo-Agulhas Plain: Temporal and spatial variation in an extraordinary extinct ecosystem of the Pleistocene of the Cape Floristic Region".Quaternary Science Reviews 235(2020).